Skip to content
Carmel Rickard writes…
  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Site Search

Maize, money, cattle, goats and cotton: compensation for wife-murder

  • 29 March 2019
  • by Carmel Rickard

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

S v Nyamayevhu

High Court, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Judge Garainesu Mawadze

In this case of wife-murder, the accused had been in custody for six months as he was refused bail, the judge said. He added:

While in custody, the now-deceased’s relatives caused the accused’s relatives to surrender some of the accused’s assets as compensation. These included nine cattle, twelve goats, four bales of cotton, two tonnes of maize and R5 000. While this can never be compared to the loss of life we cannot close our eyes to the fact that accused has somehow atoned for his criminal conduct. 

It is worth noting that accused shall forever live with the stigma that he is responsible for the demise of his wife. Worse still, he will have to explain this also to the children he had with the now-deceased.

… It is aggravating that the assault was indiscriminate and brutal. The now-deceased was injured on the head, limbs and her cervical spine broken. Severe force was therefore exerted against this defenceless housewife. The accused’s degree of negligence is clearly very high. This elevates the accused’s moral blameworthiness. Despite the mitigatory factors alluded to, the accused deserves a fairly lengthy custodial sentence.

In the result, the accused is sentenced as follows;

“Ten years’ imprisonment of which two years’ imprisonment is suspended for five years on condition the accused does not within that period commit any offence involving the use of violence upon the person of another and for which the accused is sentenced to a term of imprisonment without the option of a fine.

The effective sentence is eight years’ imprisonment.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
Tags: high court, Judge Garainesu Mawadze, wife-murder, Zimbabwe
Spy thriller played out in Uganda’s high court
Damages “not an automatic right” in judicial review

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Carmel Rickard writes... via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


Tags

CCMA (3) chief justice (3) Commercial court (2) constitution (5) constitutional and human rights division (3) constitutional court (4) constitutional rights (5) corruption (3) Court of Appeal (4) Covid-19 (6) COVID-19 regulations (3) damages (3) death penalty (5) dismissal (2) Employment law (6) eSwatini (2) Gauteng (3) Ghana (3) high court (23) Judge John Mativo (2) judicial independence (3) judicial review (3) Judicial Service Commission (3) jurisdiction (3) Kenya (15) Law Society of Kenya (3) Lesotho (5) magistrate (5) Malawi (8) Namibia (13) Rwanda (2) SA (4) SA Constitutional Court (2) SADC Tribunal (2) SA Labour Court (2) security forces (4) sentencing (4) South Africa (4) Supreme Court (11) Tanzania (7) torture (4) Uganda (9) UK (2) Zambia (6) Zimbabwe (14)

Recent Posts

  • Preserve your independence, court urges Namibia’s election commission 19 July 2020
  • African Court tells Tanzania: your constitution violates basic rights 16 July 2020
  • Government’s ‘contempt’ raised in challenge to Tanzania’s bail-ban laws 22 May 2020
  • Malawi appeal court judges set new election standards 22 May 2020
  • What orders did the court issue in the case brought by the family of Collins Khosa? 16 May 2020

Archive

Site by Neogek
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress
 Logo Header Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Subscribe to Carmel Rickard writes... via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.